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offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Possible spoiler - read if you want to know what chapters to skip for a specific CW:
Detailed depiction of rape/incest in Ch. 18
Abortion and anti-choice propaganda/experiences in Ch. 30
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Abortion, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Incest
Moderate: Bullying, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Suicide, and Outing
Minor: Vomit, Infidelity, and Miscarriage
karapillar's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Abortion, Biphobia, Blood, Death of parent, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Pregnancy, Suicide, Vomit, Misogyny, and Outing
thepretentiouspoet's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
Where to start with this book?
Context: I read 'Spellbook of the Lost and Found' by the same author last year, and liked it well. I was certainly interested in potentially reading anything else Fowley-Doyle wrote.
Then we come to this book, which is essentially a re-hashing of the "queer Irish girl experiences a curse" plot from that first book. I look up 'The Accident Season', Fowley-Doyle's first book - oh, there's that plot again.
Already I felt very much like this author had come up with one magical realism idea and was now trying to spin it as many ways as possible.
So the curse. It just doesn't make sense. You hear a banshee scream, then you find grey hairs on an old comb, then scratches appear on your body. Within ten pages of learning about how the curse works, Deena has experienced all three steps, and then continues to throughout the book with no further repercussions. That just doesn't make sense. Why set up these warning signs, tell us something bad will happen, and then simply have the protagonist freak out every time she sees *another* load of grey hairs in front of her? The banshees that she keeps seeing do nothing as well, and there is no explanation for them by the end of the book.
Then there's the characters. I understand the need for diversity in YA literature and I commend the author for trying to make rural Ireland more diverse, but Finn and Cale served the plot nothing. Finn is a 2-dimensional "bi best friend" character who is vaguely mentioned to be black (and then biracial at the end, so who knows) and does very little other than console Deena after she comes out, and tags along on the adventure. Cale serves as that female love interest - by which she mentions her sexuality within ten minutes of Deena meeting her, and they have an inconsequential kiss randomly in the middle of the book while in a haunted building. I was incredibly confused as to why she was even necessary - Deena being a lesbian is good. We don't need a random alternative girl to kiss her in the middle of the book, only to be mentioned in passing beyond that, for us to get that girls can like girls.
The only reason I didn't DNF this book was because I was genuinely interested to hear the long history of the Rys family that culminates in the impact of this curse they have been under, but even that was incredibly boring. This story is supposed to be "a powerful story about women finding their voice", but all I got was "10 ways women were abused in Ireland in the 1800s". There was no empowering message, just a wheel-spin of "how could a woman accidentally get pregnant and have to keep the baby beyond her will?". I felt no connection to Deena, her sisters, or any of their ancestors, and there seemed to be no improvement to their situation since their first relative was outcast for becoming pregnant out of wedlock.
By way of plot twists, they were unoriginal and predictable. If you were told the basic premise of the story, you could guess at least two of them - Rachel having had an abortion in her youth, Mandy being Deena's mother rather than her sister, Deena having "gone crazy" and written the family history letters by herself - and if you knew the spoilers, I don't believe it would actually impact your enjoyment of the story at all. I felt nothing at those revelations, if anything just disappointed that the big reveals at the end were so obvious and cliched.
Also, the writing is repetitive and boring. When you already know every single family member is cursed by an old apple tree that could never take root, you don't need reminding with every single family member having an instance of "smelling green apples" or "the taste of apples", or that their soul is "rotting like a bad apple". It was clumsy, and boring, and made this book far more of a drag than it could have been.
If the writing had been more lyrical, if the curse had been more explicit and fully explained throughout the character's learning the family history of the Ryses, if the curse had had any actual impact, and if the message of the story hadn't been painfully laid out in the final chapters after 300 pages of "feminist" torture porn, it would have been a good book, actually. The premise was strong, much of the content was strong, but the execution was clumsy, unoriginal, and unengaging.
TLDR: This book could have been so good, but was instead just a massive disappointment.
Context: I read 'Spellbook of the Lost and Found' by the same author last year, and liked it well. I was certainly interested in potentially reading anything else Fowley-Doyle wrote.
Then we come to this book, which is essentially a re-hashing of the "queer Irish girl experiences a curse" plot from that first book. I look up 'The Accident Season', Fowley-Doyle's first book - oh, there's that plot again.
Already I felt very much like this author had come up with one magical realism idea and was now trying to spin it as many ways as possible.
So the curse. It just doesn't make sense. You hear a banshee scream, then you find grey hairs on an old comb, then scratches appear on your body. Within ten pages of learning about how the curse works, Deena has experienced all three steps, and then continues to throughout the book with no further repercussions. That just doesn't make sense. Why set up these warning signs, tell us something bad will happen, and then simply have the protagonist freak out every time she sees *another* load of grey hairs in front of her? The banshees that she keeps seeing do nothing as well, and there is no explanation for them by the end of the book.
Then there's the characters. I understand the need for diversity in YA literature and I commend the author for trying to make rural Ireland more diverse, but Finn and Cale served the plot nothing. Finn is a 2-dimensional "bi best friend" character who is vaguely mentioned to be black (and then biracial at the end, so who knows) and does very little other than console Deena after she comes out, and tags along on the adventure. Cale serves as that female love interest - by which she mentions her sexuality within ten minutes of Deena meeting her, and they have an inconsequential kiss randomly in the middle of the book while in a haunted building. I was incredibly confused as to why she was even necessary - Deena being a lesbian is good. We don't need a random alternative girl to kiss her in the middle of the book, only to be mentioned in passing beyond that, for us to get that girls can like girls.
The only reason I didn't DNF this book was because I was genuinely interested to hear the long history of the Rys family that culminates in the impact of this curse they have been under, but even that was incredibly boring. This story is supposed to be "a powerful story about women finding their voice", but all I got was "10 ways women were abused in Ireland in the 1800s". There was no empowering message, just a wheel-spin of "how could a woman accidentally get pregnant and have to keep the baby beyond her will?". I felt no connection to Deena, her sisters, or any of their ancestors, and there seemed to be no improvement to their situation since their first relative was outcast for becoming pregnant out of wedlock.
By way of plot twists, they were unoriginal and predictable. If you were told the basic premise of the story, you could guess at least two of them -
Also, the writing is repetitive and boring. When you already know every single family member is cursed by an old apple tree that could never take root, you don't need reminding with every single family member having an instance of "smelling green apples" or "the taste of apples", or that their soul is "rotting like a bad apple". It was clumsy, and boring, and made this book far more of a drag than it could have been.
If the writing had been more lyrical, if the curse had been more explicit and fully explained throughout the character's learning the family history of the Ryses, if the curse had had any actual impact, and if the message of the story hadn't been painfully laid out in the final chapters after 300 pages of "feminist" torture porn, it would have been a good book, actually. The premise was strong, much of the content was strong, but the execution was clumsy, unoriginal, and unengaging.
TLDR: This book could have been so good, but was instead just a massive disappointment.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Vomit, Homophobia, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
misssleepless's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry and Sexism
Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Death, Grief, and Homophobia
Minor: Child death, Miscarriage, Rape, Suicide, and Vomit
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